FORT WORTH, Texas (May 4, 2023) – The Ben Hogan Award committee, Friends of Golf (FOG) and Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) are pleased to present the 2023 Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank Finalists. The Finalists, listed in alphabetical order, are senior Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech, sophomore Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt and Stanford junior Michael Thorbjornsen.
Sargent and Thorbjornsen are first-time Finalists, while Aberg was the 2022 Ben Hogan Award recipient. Aberg is the eighth player to be invited to Colonial as a Finalist multiple times, joining Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, Chris Kirk, Maverick McNealy, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Rodgers. Only Rahm (2015, 2016) has won the honor twice.
Stanford, with Rodgers (2014) and McNealy (2017), and Texas Tech, with Aberg (2022), are home to past Hogan Award winners. Vanderbilt is looking for its first-ever award recipient.
Aberg, who hails from Eslov, Sweden, is ranked first in both the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and the PGA TOUR University ranking. Additionally, he is listed second in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings and the Golfstat Individual Rankings for college play. Last week, he won the Big 12 Conference individual title by eight shots with a tournament-record 15-under par score of 265. He also has college wins this season at the Valspar Collegiate and The Prestige and owns eight total top-10 finishes with a 68.60 stroke average.
Aberg made the cut at a pair of PGA TOUR events this spring, sharing 24th place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and tying for 61st at the Valspar Championship. A 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup participant for Team Europe, last summer he also reached the match play quarterfinals at the Amateur Championship, advanced to the match play round of 64 at the U.S. Amateur, tied for seventh individually at the World Amateur Team Championship and was 18th at the European Amateur.
Sargent sits atop both the Golfstat Individual Rankings and the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings. In addition, he is listed second in WAGR and third by Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com. Sargent began the 2022-23 award season by winning the individual title at the 2022 NCAA Championships as a freshman with a 72-hole score of 280 (E). A member of the U.S. Palmer Cup team, his amateur highlights also include advancing to match play at the U.S. Amateur, placing fourth at the Northeast Amateur, tying for sixth at the Jones Cup Invitational, sharing 17th at the Western Amateur and being one of seven amateurs to compete at the 2023 Masters.
A native of Birmingham, Ala., and the school’s all-time wins leader has three college victories to his credit this year, the Hayt Collegiate, Mason Rudolph Championship and East Lake Cup. He placed among the top 10 in all 10 tournaments, including eight top-5s, and carries a 67.79 season stroke average. He finished first in the 2023 Arnold Palmer Cup standings and will compete for the United States again this summer.
Thorbjornsen, a native of Wellesley, Mass., ranks second in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com Ranking and third in the WAGR, Golfstat College Ranking and Golfweek/Sagarin Ranking. He placed solo fourth at the 2022 Travelers Championship, the highest finish by an amateur on the PGA TOUR since 2016 and just the 12th top-10 by an amateur on the circuit since 2000. He also logged a top-20 finish at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour. Thorbjornsen played in the 2022 U.S. Open and was a member of the United States’ Palmer Cup squad. He advanced to match play at both the U.S. Amateur and the Western Amateur and shared 11th place individually at the World Amateur Team Championship.
Thorbjornsen won the Pac-12 Championships individual crown last week with a 15-under sum of 265 and also picked up a victory at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational in the fall. In all, the Pac-12 Player of the Year has seven top-10 showings in nine college events while carding a 68.96 scoring average.
The Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank annually awards the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer based on all collegiate, amateur and professional events over the previous 12 months. Three of the top 12 players in the Official World Golf Ranking—Masters champion and World No. 1 Rahm (2015, 2016), No. 4 Cantlay (2012) and No. 12 Viktor Hovland (2019)—are past recipients of the honor.
The Finalists will attend a black-tie dinner Monday, May 22, at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, where the winner will be crowned. The winner will receive an exemption into the PGA TOUR’s 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge, played annually at Colonial.
The award’s selection committee, which votes during each stage of the process, is made up of nearly three dozen leaders and experts in professional, amateur and collegiate golf both domestically and internationally. In addition, past recipients will be eligible to vote on the final ballot.
The Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank began honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer at Colonial Country Club in 2002. Prior to its move to Fort Worth, the original Ben Hogan Trophy, which utilized a different set of criteria for its winner, was issued at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles beginning in 1990.
Hogan Award winners at Colonial have combined to accumulate 76 worldwide victories, including 57 PGA TOUR wins, and have amassed more than $390 million in prize money on the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour. Additionally, the group has appeared in 12 Ryder Cups, a dozen Presidents Cups and won two FedExCup championships.
Since 2002, the Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank has distributed over $900,000 in scholarships and donations to more than 30 universities and charities. For more information, visit TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
2023 Ben Hogan Award Finalists
Ludvig Aberg, Texas Tech, Sr., Eslov, Sweden
Gordon Sargent, Vanderbilt, So., Birmingham, Ala.
Michael Thorbjornsen, Stanford, Jr., Wellesley, Mass.
Previous Ben Hogan Award Winners at Colonial Country Club
D.J. Trahan, Clemson (2002); Ricky Barnes, Arizona (2003); Hunter Mahan, Oklahoma State (2003); Bill Haas, Wake Forest (2004); Ryan Moore, UNLV (2005); Matt Every, Florida (2006); Chris Kirk, Georgia (2007); Rickie Fowler, Oklahoma State (2008); Kyle Stanley, Clemson (2009); Nick Taylor, Washington (2010); Peter Uihlein, Oklahoma State (2011); Patrick Cantlay, UCLA (2012); Chris Williams, Washington (2013); Patrick Rodgers, Stanford (2014); Jon Rahm, Arizona State (2015, 2016); Maverick McNealy, Stanford (2017); Doug Ghim, Texas (2018); Viktor Hovland, Oklahoma State (2019); Sahith Theegala, Pepperdine (2020); John Pak, Florida State (2021); and Ludvig Aberg, Texas Tech (2022).